Well, another year and another MS150 in the books. However, I’m thinking that this one is going to go down as one of the oddest - based on what we were told last week, this was the first time in 13 years that they’ve had to worry about closing the route in the middle of the ride. It also helped me redefine what “wet, cold, and miserable” means to me.

Saturday was great, but on Sunday it seemed like we all rode along in our private little hells. I probably could have dealt with the cold without too much whining. It was the rain that was killling me - it just kept falling. And falling. And falling. All I could think about was the Ray Bradbury story The Long Rain:

THE rain continued. It was a hard rain, a perpetual rain, a sweating and steaming rain; it was a mizzle, a downpour, a fountain, a whipping at the eyes, an undertow at the ankles; it was a rain to drown all rains and the memory of rains. It came by the pound and the ton, it hacked at the jungle and cut the trees like scissors and shaved the grass and tunneled the soil and molted the bushes. It shrank men’s hands into the hands of wrinkled apes; it rained a solid glassy rain, and it never stopped.
–The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury

To be honest, it was with mixed emotions that I left the course at lunch - I still wanted to ride, but as jerkily made my way into the lunch stop part of me was happy to be out of the rain. I think it was the part of me that was trying to reestablish contact with my toes and fingers. The part I like to think of as “the small, sane part of my brain”. The part that very seldom gets much work, as my family will probably readily attest.

Below I’ve included the full text of my final update to my donor list, which includes links to several sites that have pictures from last week. Thank you one and all for your support. As always, I owe a special debt to my wife and kids who not only put up with this madness once a year, but provide a great deal of inspiration and encouragement.

Hi,

Thank you for your support for this year’s MS150 Pedal to the Point. Because of your generosity, our team of four has raised over $2,000 for MS research.

As many of you already know, it was an interesting weekend for those of us who rode. The riding was nearly perfect on Saturday - the temperature was in the low 70’s and the sky was blue. Sunday was a different story - we woke to a steady rain and falling temperatures, which continued as we started off from Sandusky at 7:00 AM. At 10:00 AM, with the rain still falling and the temperature at 58 degrees, the organizers decided to start removing riders from the course for their safety. Several hundred riders (including our team) were stopped at the lunch break and bussed to the finish. Well, almost all of them - about 30 minutes after we arrived the route was reopened and some hearty souls (including teammate Todd Durfee) continued on to Berea.

I personally completed 145 miles over the weekend - 100 during the century the first day, and 45 during the rain shortened ride on Sunday. Although I was disappointed at not being able to complete the remaining 30 miles, I’m happy to say that despite the weather and the logistical difficulties the MS Society and MS volunteers did an amazing job getting everyone (and their bikes) back to the fairground.

For those of you who are interested, I have included links to some pictures of the event. Both Dave and I carried cameras on the course on Saturday, and have uploaded the images to Flickr. The second two links are pictures of me taken by the official photographer for the course.

Dave’s Photo Set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erstman/sets/72157601598024934/

My Photo Set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/qdzlug/sets/72157601595725284/

Course Photographer Day One:
http://kmorris.exposuremanager.com/p/93/p2p_192346

Course Photographer Day Two:
http://kmorris.exposuremanager.com/p/96/p2p_237832

Thank you again for your support. For those of you who have pledged but not paid as of yet, I will be collecting through the end of next week. You can pay by cash or check (either made out to me or the National MS Society). Additionally, if you know someone who would still like to contribute please feel free to forward this email.

Jason

There was a man
Who gave the world his song.
And the world stood still
To hear him sing…
Now the king is gone

And, oh, what a reign
And the crown on his head
Long will remain
From a workin’ man
To royalty
To everlasting fame…

The king is gone
Yeah, the king is gone
Long live his name

It may surprise you, but even though I can never seem to remember any other important date I somehow manage to remember the anniversary of Elvis’ death every year. I remember the postcard you sent me from your trip where you wrote me about Elvis’ death - it must have been one of those defining moments, because I can close my eyes and distinctly see mom reading it to me in the living room of the house on Broadview. To a five year old, it was pretty upsetting.

I found the video above this morning when I was following links about Elvis and was struck by how much it reminded me of my view of him when I was a kid. Of course, just like when I was eight the Ronnie McDowell song still puts a tear in my eye.

It’s hard to believe it’s the 30th Anniversary of his death. Even harder to believe that with the sheer amount of Elvis music, art, wine bottles, and other assorted memorabilia in our house we’ve never made it to Graceland.

You know, the King may be gone, but your love of his music has definitely been transfered on - I challenge you to find any other family the children (and grandchildren) can sing along with as many Elvis songs as we can. Nor can any of us listen to Elvis without thinking of you.

Now I have to get back to listening to Elvis Radio on Sirius at work and amazing my colleagues with my rainman-like knowledge of obscure Elvis lyrics.

For those of you who don’t live within a 14 mile radius of my house, I was interviewed in The Suburbanite. My first - and in all likeliness - last interview on the exciting subject of bike riding. The link is here, but since I’m not sure how long they leave links up on their site I’ve reproduced the article here as well. I was a bit nervous about the prospect of someone actually writing down what I say, since I normally tend to come off as a bit of an idiot at times, but the article turned out fairly well. At least that’s what I’m telling everyone.

Psychotic Pineapples Pedal to the Point for MS fundraiser
August 10, 2007
By Aaron Stark

LAKEMORE — Jason Schmidt likes to go bike riding. It’s a hobby that he’s been doing off and on since college. Only now, he rides for a purpose. He rides to raise money for multiple sclerosis research in the annual MS Pedal to the Point, a fundraising bike ride sponsored by the Multiple Sclerosis Society and he does it to honor the memory of his friend, Sean Riegler.

Schmidt and Riegler had been friends since they attended Walsh High School together.

Schmidt said that, though he did not know Riegler before high school, he knew who he was.

“I used to play soccer for St. Hillary’s and that was one of those names that always came up. Kids were always talking about different teams and they’d say, ‘This team has Sean Riegler.’ I don’t think our team ever played, but it was just the legend of Sean,” said Riegler.

Schmidt met Riegler on the first day of freshman year on the bus ride to Walsh and they quickly became friends.

Riegler passed away suddenly from complications with Crohn’s Disease five years ago. Schmidt said that Riegler often rode his bike for charity and he decided to carry the torch.

“Sean had always asked us to go bike riding, but he always did these charity rides. He did the MS 150 and a couple other ones. We always just pretty much said, ‘oh, uh-huh’ but we never actually took him up on it,” said Schmidt. “At his funeral, and there were tons of people there, I just wanted to find some way to just remember him. I talked to a couple of friends, and it’s really a credit to the type of friends I have, I just said, ‘Hey, do you want to go do this ride; we’ll do it for Sean,’ and they jumped right on board.”

Though Schmidt rides to honor the memory of Riegler, his remembrance of him far from hinges on it.

“Sean’s the kind of person who I could sit here and talk for hours about and only scratch the surface,” said Schmidt. “He was the kind of person who cut across all the different groups and cliques at Walsh. He was captain of the soccer team our senior year, but he was such a humble person. He and I were cutting grass and doing lawn work together the entire summer before our senior year. I found out that he was captain of the soccer team in the same assembly with everybody else. He never mentioned it to me. If I was captain of the soccer team, I would have had t-shirts made up and been wearing a hat that said captain, but to Sean, it was just something that he did.”

Riegler was also a musician, playing guitar. He went on to have a successful career as an engineer.

“Everyone liked him; you’d be hard pressed to find someone who would say anything bad about him,” said Schmidt. “He had an amazing impact on all the people around him.”

Schmidt is captain of a team that competed from 2003-2005 (they missed 2006 due to scheduling conflicts, but will be riding again this year). His team is the Psychotic Pineapples, named for the band that he and Riegler were in during high school.

“We weren’t very good,” said Schmidt with a laugh, “We played a couple of school dances; this and that. We were 16, 17… it was fun.”

The Psychotic Pineapples usually consist of four or five riders; four this year, including fellow Walsh graduates, Todd Durfee and Dave Erstee. Durfee’s wife Heather works in an MS clinic and has been a member of the Psychotic Pineapples in the past but gave birth last year and will not participate in this year’s race.

Schmidt said that while Durfee had gone bike riding with him prior to their participation in the MS Bike Ride, the event has upped Durfee’s enthusiasm for the sport.

“It’s funny because back before we started this, I’d ride in the neighborhood or down to the state park and back. Occasionally, I’d go ride the tow path. Todd had a mountain bike too and he’d ride occasionally. Neither of us had ridden anything of this length, though another teammate Dave had,” said Schmidt. “Since then Todd has become Mr. Gung-Ho bike rider. He’s bought a couple of different road bikes, he’s got all the team jerseys, matching gloves… it’s kind of funny.”

Schmidt said that, in his experience, the MS Bike Ride draws people of all different ages and creeds; making for a varied crowd.

“It’s amazing the diversity of the people you see out there. You’ve got the guys out there decked out in the full U.S. Postal or Discovery gear, four or five of them forming pacelines and just blowing down the road,” said Schmidt. “I’ve seen kids… I rode next to a nine year old one year who was riding 150 miles with his dad. A couple of years, I rode next to a guy who has MS and can barely walk, but he has a hand crank and he does that through 150 miles. I’ve seen a gentleman who comes out and he has a prosthetic leg and he just peddles with his good leg. It’s just the full spectrum.”

The MS Pedal to the Point has various route options for participants. The lengths include 30, 75, 100 and 150 miles. The Psychotic Pineapples will, as usual, be participating in the MS 150, but he and Durfee will actually be doing more.

“This year, maybe in a fit of foolishness, I decided to try and do the optional century on the first day, so I’ll hopefully do 175,” said Schmidt.

Two years ago, Schmidt fought though the flu for the entire second day of the race. He said that he goes in with a determination to finish the ride if at all possible.

“Sean was the kind of person who would finish it. If he had to carry his bike the last 10 miles, he’d carry his bike,” said Schmidt. “And he wouldn’t complain, he wouldn’t make a big deal about it, but he would finish.”

Schmidt said that he started doing his fundraising for the bike ride a few weeks ago and quickly exceeded expectations.

“I set my personal goal at $500 and I’m already past that,” said Schmidt. “Most of my fundraising is through alumni; I send out letters to other graduates and usually I get letters back.”

Even though Riegler is the reason Schmidt began dong charity bike rides, it’s become more to him. Schmidt said that it is a good feeling to know that he is making a difference in people’s lives.

“We started it for Sean and there’s that aspect to it; he’d be happy that we did it. But as you start to do the race and as you see the people come out and you see some of the things MS does to them, I get a lot of satisfaction when we, as a team, are able to bring in several thousand dollars for research. That means a lot, and in kind’ve a weird way, that’s what Sean would be proud of. Not that we decided to go and ride 150 miles for him, but that we decided to help people.”

After missing last year’s ride due to being in England (during the whole “explosive liquids” scare, no less), I’m looking forward to riding this year. Of course, I just came to the realization that the ride is only two weeks away. Which seems to be what I do every year.

So most of this morning has been spent working on the ride - I’ve updated the Team Page (at the urging of Dave Erste), updated my personal page, printed out a pledge form to be used here at work, and sent out a fundraising email. Whew.

Full text of email is below. If you’re able to contribute that would be great - if not, no worries. And if you’re going to be in the Sandusky area on the 18th let me know, we’d love to see you.

Hi,

On the 18th and 19th of this month I - along with several friends - with be participating in the Multiple Sclerosis Society’s “MS 150 Pedal to the Point”. Once again we will be riding as “Team Psychotic Pineapples”.

Multiple Sclerosis is a devastating disease. The MS Society has compiled a wealth of information about the disease on their website. Statistics are dry and boring, but for those of us who ride it becomes more personal. We have all had occasion to talk with people who suffer the effects of this devastating disease, many of whom come out to encourage us as we ride. It’s a good feeling to be able to help out in some way, no matter how small.

Although the ride is normally for a total of 150 miles over two days, Teammate Todd Durfee and I will be actually covering 175 miles. Due to an amazing lapse of judgment on my part, I’ve agreed to ride (or at least attempt to ride) the optional century on Saturday. Followed by 75 more miles on Sunday. On the plus side, the hospitals in the Sandusky/Berea area are rumored to be very nice.

If you would like to support our efforts you can make a donation on our behalf (don’t forget to check to see if you company matches charitable contributions). Donations can be made by clicking on the “Donation/Pledge” link on the MS Society’s web site and searching for my name or the team name (Team Psychotic Pineapples). To make it easier, I’ve included the direct links below. Alternatively, you can send a check made out to the “National MS Society” either to me or directly to the MS Society address below:

Bike Processing Center
National MS Society
6155 Rockside Rd., Suite 202
Independence, OH 44131

If donating by directly by check, please be sure to include either the team name or my name with your donation.

Direct links:

My Personal Page

Team Psychotic Pineapples Page

More Information on the Ride

Please feel free to call or email me if you have any questions, also please forward this to anyone you think would be interested. Thank you for reading this,

Jason

P.S.
Every year we are questioned on our rather….er, unique team name when we get to the ride. The paragraph - written by Todd Durfee - provides a fairly succinct explanation.

Some of you are probably wondering why the team name is Team Psychotic Pineapples. Surprise, I didn’t come up with the name. A friend of mine, Sean Riegler, was in a band called The Psychotic Pineapples. For years Sean rode in the “Pedal to the Point” and would ask myself and a couple of our other friends to join him; none of us ever accepted his offer. Mostly because none of us thought that riding a bike for 150 miles in 2 days sounded even remotely fun. Five years ago, Sean, whom I went to high school with, died rather suddenly. After his death those of us who were always invited to ride with him decided that a great way of keeping his memory alive and continuing his donations to the MS Society would be to form a team and ride in the “Pedal to the Point.” We thought it fitting that the team name should reflect Sean, his love of music and goofy nature, ergo we named the team, Team Psychotic Pineapples.